Blurred lines between fact and fiction in EU debate

The video was a hoax – a satire highlighting the public’s mistrust of the establishment and opaque institutions, marking out freemarket as a disruptive outsider (offering a low, transparent fee on foreign payments, as opposed to the hidden, variable fees imposed by well-known banks and brokers).

Yet many viewers appear to have taken the video at face value, and the public reaction – particularly on Facebook – has been so deeply felt that it appears we’ve inadvertently tapped into a wellspring of emotion characterised by strong views on the EU referendum, an angry mistrust of government/politicians, and general confusion about what is or isn’t real.

The irony is that the values espoused by many of the most fervid commenters – reclaiming power from the establishment; disrupting the status quo; dealing fairly and transparently with money – are all core tenets of freemarket’s business model. As a disruptive fintech firm catering primarily to small businesses, we are eroding the power of banking behemoths that routinely take advantage of the little guy.

In having a flippant dig at establishment corruption and placing ourselves in opposition to it, what we considered a bit of a prank has been co-opted as a real-life example of harm caused by a nebulous political elite.

James is freemarket’s Chief Commercial Officer. He has a history of finding new ways to solve age-old financial challenges and was responsible for launching some of the first online money transfer and prepaid card initiatives in Europe.